


Ritarin: The Lone Loraldi

by Parallax_Litefield



Category: Furry (Fandom), Ritarin
Genre: Anthropomorphic, First Contact, Hard Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Battles, Stranded, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Parallax_Litefield/pseuds/Parallax_Litefield
Summary: Deep in the void of interstellar space, a catastrophic accident leaves the crew of the EAS corvette Nidet stranded with little hope of rescue. Pressed for time and low on resources, help may be closer than they ever thought possible, but will they be trusting enough to accept it? And is that help ready to accept the responsibility of the title that will be placed upon it?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. The Astronauts Lament

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a piece of writing that will actually be posted somewhere. At the moment I have a few chapters in the works, and general plans for about ten more. 
> 
> I am being a bit cautious about the rating thus far, as there will likely be strong language and violent scenes later in this story.
> 
> For the moment I'm expecting my chapters to be relatively short and focused, though that may change as I continue to write.
> 
> I always welcome comments on my work, never be afraid to speak your mind.

Ritarin:  
The Lone Loraldi:  
Prologue: The Astronauts Lament.

(POV Chikarin)

Alone. You never really grasp the concept of alone until the dozens of voices singing in your head are violently snuffed out. Each voice a life lost. Each voice a life wasted. These are the thoughts violently looping through my head.

The air is cold and stale, the sparking electrical conduits are the only source of light as I float through the remnants of main engineering. How did this happen? How quickly everything changed. 

I was checking a field stability console for the Space Compression drive. Everything looked fine, field integrity nominal, energy output well within tolerances. And yet, this happened. The jolt, the screeching, grinding sound of the forward decks above me doing who knows what. 

Flames. Sparks. Screams. And then, nothing. Emptiness. The torturous silence of both the ship, and my mind. I know I’m the only one left, I don't even need to open my eyes. 

Wait. There! It’s faint but I can feel it. Another mind, confused, in pain, a turbulent well of chaotic thoughts. It’s thought patterns are erratic, foreign, but maybe it’s just a product of the pain. [Hello?] No response. I must be going mad, a telepathic hallucination, nothing more. 

They have a name for this, you know. The experts call it Psychic backlash, the overwhelming sense of confusion and loss from being violently severed from the telepathic network. I never imagined it could feel like this, like someone ripped my heart from my chest and told me that Loralden was a frigid ball of ice instead of a vibrant world of jungles and oceans.

After a quick check of the emergency bulkheads I can’t decide whether I’m lucky or not. Would it have been a mercy to die a quick death in the vacuum of space, or perhaps have my neck snapped as I smashed against a bulkhead.

All I do know is that I will soon die, choking on my own breath inside a crushed metal box full of sparking electrical conduits.

Wait a minute, sparks. The electrical conduits are sparking. We have power! This is main engineering, maybe the scrubbers survived. I won’t choke to death! There has to be a working light around here somewhere.

But what purpose would that serve? Suffocating or not isn’t much of a choice when I’m on the only ship meant to traverse the vast interstellar void, light years away from the only home my species has ever known. Better women than I have died from less.

It would at least make me more comfortable knowing what I have to work with.

(POV Telluri)

Just another day in space. The muffled rumble of the nuclear thrusters expelling flash-boiled water. My gaze drifts to the Talden of this ship, his orange furred muzzle showing the early signs of old age. I can hardly believe that I’m already halfway through my life, the mirror on the wall painting a chilling reminder of my own mortality. But we must always remember that everything dies. Everything has it’s time, and in the end, it’s what we do with that time that truly matters.

My time in space has taught me many things. Chief among these lessons is teamwork. Cohesion is important on all warships, but it’s critical to the success of small warships. Anything with a crew of less than fifty lives, and dies, by the measure of its cohesion. We may ruffle each other’s fur from time to time, but when it’s needed most we all pull together. Because whether you’re an Edori like me, or a Nidari like my left-paw man, at the end of the day we all don the same ice-blue uniforms. The uniform of the Edonian Astral Service.

“Telluri.” 

I am snapped from my thoughts at the sound of my name. A quick sniff confirms what my ears have already told me, “Andossin, did you need something?” 

“I can see that the burden of time is finally catching up to you.” A wicked grin crossing his muzzle.

I turn to face the Nidari. His tail is giving a lazy wag, smug bastard. “You’re one to talk, you’re even older than me. You just can’t tell because your muzzle has always been white.” I fire back. 

“Woah, little man’s got a temper, I see.” There’s a light in his eyes as he says that, he’s enjoying this little game. If he were anyone else he’d be on the deck from a left hook right about now, but I know he holds no malice in his words.

“I’ll have you know that this little man can pull a full one and a half g’s more than you can, and besides, as my second in command you’re supposed to be the one with the temper.”

“A temper? Me? Since when?” He lays his ears back, feigning annoyance.

“If the crew likes the Taljoren, then he’s not doing his job right.” Sad but true. As second in command he keeps the crew sharp and focused, while it’s my job to direct that focus. Andossin also helps catch any mistakes that I might make before they spiral out of control, I highly doubt that I could do my job without him.

“Speaking of the crew, the new guys are getting complacent. Some of them are ignoring thrust drills.” He says to me, taking on a more professional attitude. “Maybe we should shake them up a bit, show them what it means to crew a corvette.”

The replacements, an endless pain in my tail. Most of those morons are here because they thought rim patrols would be an easy assignment, plenty of down time, or so they thought. Truth be told, Corvette crews are among the most rigorous postings in the service.

Yea, it would be good to give them a reminder, and it’s better for them to black out now than during a potential combat engagement. We’re in the middle of nowhere, the vast interstellar void between solar systems, there shouldn’t be anything this far out.  
With my luck the most those rookies have ever pulled is three g’s, without proper training the acceleration of a corvette can kill.

I do a final check of my uniform’s Astral Acceleration Suit, everything looks good. All set to keep the blood in my body exactly where it should be.

Next step, getting to the CIC. I motion for him to follow. “Come on Andossin, let’s show the new guys exactly why you never ignore thrust warnings”

I start my slow walk to the center of the cylindrical-shaped crew barracks. I feel a bit heavy, we’re probably pulling more than one g. Luckily I don’t have to walk far. There’s a lift in the center of the deck, with a ladder off to the side. I’ll use the lift this time, no point climbing if it’s not an emergency.

A few moments waiting for the lift, and a short ride later I step onto the CIC deck. The Combat Information Center shares the same cylindrical shape as the barracks deck. Five workstations are arranged in a circular pattern around the perimeter of the deck. Each workstation has a horizontally oriented seat not much different from the beds in the barracks, and an array of data readouts situated above each chair. The actual controls for each station are situated along the sides of each chair, where the operator’s paws would naturally rest in their lying position.

There are two additional unoccupied stations near the center of the deck, mine and Andossin’s.

I move to my station, lie back into the seat, and strap myself in. The data screens above me flicker to life. Looking to my left, Andossin is just now lowering himself into the station, his white furred body presenting a stark contrast to the dark metallic deck surrounding his seat.

“Sergen Rilari, helm status.” He scans over his consoles, “Acceleration holding stable at zero-two-four, FSF six-zero-zero.” was his measured reply. I could have used my data readouts, which can display readouts from any of the other workstations, but it is usually faster and far more simple to ask. Additionally, asking keeps the crew engaged.

Two g's acceleration with a Folding Space Field density of six hundred real cubic meters per field cubic meter. We can do better, much better. We’re the fastest ship in the fleet.

“Helm, sound acceleration alarm.” The klaxon emits a short series of tones. I key the ship’s PA system, “Attention all hands, brace for high g thrust. Secure all loose equipment, and occupy acceleration stations.”

I give the non-CIC crew a full minute to respond before issuing my next order. We’ll start with something light, “Turn her loose Rilari. Set acceleration zero-seven-zero. Increase FSF to nine-zero-zero.”

Rilari has the ghost of a smirk on his broad Nidari muzzle. Being an old veteran of this ship like me, he knows exactly what I’m doing, and relishes any chance he has to stretch the legs of this ship. “Yes Talden, Acceleration zero-seven-zero, FSF nine-zero-zero.”

I watch the Folding Space Field indicator as the lines representing the fabric of space-time in front of our vessel are crumpled even closer together. Then the acceleration hits, the sudden jerk of the primary drives stretching their legs. My AAS is starting to squeeze my limbs as I’m pinned into my station. And that’s only half the acceleration this ship can actually do.

“Maneuver complete, maintaining course and acceleration.” Rilari proudly stated.

Yep, just another day in space. I wonder how the new guys are taking it? If they haven’t manned their stations then they’re probably all focused on staying conscious right now. With time they’ll learn to work in high g’s, but for now I’m considering this their first lesson: This is no joking matter, thrust warnings do not get ignored.

“Wait, what?” I hear the words mumbled off to the side, Takari’s voice I think. “KILL FSD! FULL DORSAL THRUST!” Takari didn’t finish his warning in time.

A violent lurch. Sparks. Vertigo. The most deafening sound that my pointed, fur covered ears have ever heard.

My head is swimming. Everything is fuzzy. My status console is filled with alarms, but my vision is too blurred to discern their meaning. Ok then, let’s work backwards. We were moving very fast, an impact powerful enough to nearly incapacitate me. Takari. The warning. It’s coming back to me now. 

Something hit us, or did we hit something? I growl at my inability to decide, and even further at the fact that I cared about the difference right now.

Pain. Indescribable pain shooting through my head, and right up the base of my spine. Voices echo in my ears, or is it just one voice? “...destroyed, explosive decompression on decks twenty through twenty three, sealing bulkhe...” “...tteries offline, KKV bays jammed, we have no…” “...uri? Telluri, are you ok?” Everything is fading in and out, a blurred mass of white fills my vision. Is that Andossin? What’s happening? “Telluri!” The voices are growing distant now, the light fading to dark. The last conscious thought I’m aware of isn’t even a word, but more of a concept, a feeling. A feeling mixed with, a question?

[Hello?]

Darkness.


	2. Bleeding

Ritarin:  
The Lone Loraldi:  
Chapter 1: Bleeding.

(POV Chikarin)

I’ve finally fixed the lights, and now that I’ve seen what I have to work with the situation seems comically hopeless. A quick check of damage logs confirmed my initial fears, with the exception of the main thrusters, none of the ship is still connected to engineering. I am still unable to find any trace of my fellow crewmates, I’m assuming the worst.

There is one oddity though, that telepathic hallucination keeps coming back. It lacks any semblance of ordered thought, just random flashes, an idea here, a memory there, soon followed by nothing at all. I’m almost convinced that it’s real at times, but then I remind myself where I am and what just happened. I think anyone's mind would act like mine if placed in a situation like this. Still, I take some measure of comfort from these hallucinations, I think they’re the only thing keeping me sane. And I’ll need every ounce of my sanity intact if I’m to find a way out of this mess.

Now, how do I survive this? I'm about four days travel from the edge of my solar system if the Space Compression drive was working. If I can fix that I’ll at least be able to get close enough to send a message to the Loralden Space Agency, maybe they’ll have some extra ships on the edge of the system they can send to pick me up. I need to fix the SC drive and find a way to rig the public address systems in engineering to broadcast a strong enough signal to cut through the background radiation of space.

The largest obstacle I’m facing here is the time constraint. I know I won’t asphyxiate, at least not as long as the air scrubbers are working, my main issue now is water. A week, maximum. That’s how long I have for help to reach me, that’s how long I have until my body withers away to nothing. Well, no point in wasting time. 

I spread my feathered wings wide and start the rhythmic flapping that will carry me through the air. Learning to fly in microgravity was difficult, but now I’m thankful for every second of training I dedicated to it. I reach the SC drive in short order, and start reviewing the status panel. Faults, nothing but faults, over three hundred errors recorded. Ok, let’s review these and see how many could be caused by the same issue, once I know that I’ll know what to fix first.

Let’s see here; calibration errors, those should be easy enough to fix, but that needs to be done last; current draw errors, large surges of electrical power; more current errors, but this time they show no power. I continue this for what seems like hours, find a fault, assess it, toss it in a pile of other things like it. The hallucinations continue with their odd little games, at some point I’m surprised to find that I’m thinking back to them. Maybe I am going insane. I don’t think   
there’s a single Loraldi alive that’s gone as long as I have without telepathic contact, no time for thoughts like that now though. I need to keep focused on the problem.  
Let’s see here, the largest collection of errors have to do with power transmission, that’s where I’ll start first. I crack open the access panel to the drive’s primary electrical box to assess the damage. 

Fuck, every single wire has melted and, and. It’s melted through the compression matrix! There is no fixing this! The single most resource-intensive part of this entire ship and it had to be the one that broke! Ok, ok, ok. Calm down, maybe it’s not as bad as it looks, maybe I can still fix this. There could be a spare, there has to be a spare. We wouldn’t have started this mission without a spare, would we? Loraldi are prepared, we always have a plan right? Who am I kidding, we’re nothing on our own, just bodies and minds to throw at a problem until it’s fixed, expendable.

I am bent.

Fury. Pure, unbridled rage. Followed by sorrow, loss, defeat. The hallucination is still with me, but it’s different now. I don’t know when it happened, but it’s, it’s lucid now. While it’s surface still wells with chaos, at its core it is all the things I’m not. Calm, collected, hopeful. Madness be damned! I reach out. I reach out to it with all my being. I convey to it my sorrow, my loss, my pain. I beg to it. I plead to it. I pray to it. [Help me! Please help me! Save me! Save me from this hell!]

I am broken.

(POV Telluri)

Strange dreams. Darkness. Flashes of light. Errors. Work the problem.

What are these things? What do they mean?

Light. Blinding, searing light. Voices. “Talden. Talden, can you hear me?” Ijuurisus?

My eyes snap to the vague orange mass above me. I speak. “Ijuurisus, is that you?” Pain, incredible pain. I have a splitting headache, and I can’t feel my tail. Wait, I can’t feel my tail! “What? What’s going on?” I start to sit up, only to be forced back down. 

“Lie still.” The feminine voice commands. “You’ve suffered a serious concussion, you should take things nice and slow.” I don't want to take things slow, I want to know what happened. Damage reports, casualty lists, dammit I need to know!

“I know that look.” She says, “You can afford to take five minutes to get your bearings first, before you concern yourself with the rest of our problems. I assure you Telluri, things are stable enough for that.”

My eyes finally clear up the figure above me, it is Ijuurisus. The light framed Edori medical officer always had a way of getting her patients to do exactly what she wanted, if only for a short time. “Ok, five minutes.” I mumble, as I massage the side of my head with my forepaw. I glance around the deck, and to my horror I see the one thing that could snap me out of my stupor. 

Bodies.

Fuck, there must be at least six of them. I'm up. I'm up! I need to see! I sit up and float over to the cluster of bodies strapped to the tables. Float? No gravity, no thrust, not good. A closer look at the uniforms tells me that they all held the rank of Lorek. The new guys? I feel sick.

“Their deaths were quick, I can promise you that.” Quick? It looks like they were crushed, how could that have been quick! “They were thrown by the impact, they weren't strapped in.” she says. The nausea worsens, a chill runs down my spine. “Did I do this?” I don’t even realize that I spoke.

”You provided them with more than adequate warning for the maneuver, and you could not have anticipated a collision in the interstellar void. You did nothing wrong Talden.” There’s an edge to her voice now, she never sounds angry. She must be furious. I instinctively flatten my ears.

Ijuurisus must have picked up on my newfound distress “It was their own damn fault!” she cries out, “They’re responsible for their own deaths! We need you focused on the living, Telluri, not the dead!”

She’s right, mourn the dead later. Save the living now. “How many of us are left?” I ask. “Eight,” she replies. “Us, and the rest of the CIC crew. The rest were either crushed, or launched into the void.” Twenty two. Twenty two souls. No, not now, focus on the living!

“How long was I out?” My voice is gaining strength now. My head still hurts, but I can finally think straight. “About five hours, Andossin has been coordinating the damage control. Once we patch the holes we can patch, we’ll repressurize the decks that vented and see what we have left.”

Ok, that’s good. Start fixing the ship. I need to find out how much of it is still left. I turn to Ijuurisus, “I need to get to the CIC.” 

She places her paw on my shoulder, “As long as you move slowly, I won’t stop you from going. And be careful with your tail, it’s broken.” 

Good enough for me. I guide myself over to the ladder and push off. I float through the ladder corridor until I reach the CIC, then grab the rungs and gently push away.

Andossin and Takari are here, both of them are at their stations. With the exception of myself, the rest of the deck is empty. They both look busy, but I already know what Andossin is doing, and I know better than to interrupt an operation as delicate damage control. Which leaves the Edori-Nidari hybrid, Takari, as my only source of information for the moment. “SigOps, report.”

They both freeze, Andossin looks like he’s seen a ghost, was I really that badly hurt? “Taljoren, resume your operations.” He nods, and refocuses on his readouts. Occasionally he gives an order to run a pressure test, or patch a hole. I know he wants to talk, but I also know that he understands. Duty comes first in this case, lest we lose another member of our slowly dwindling crew.

The hybrid is still frozen in place, mid keystroke on his console. “Leden Takinilok, report.” that seemed to snap him out of it. “We’ve lost all decks forward of deck twenty four, and lost pressure on decks twenty through twenty four.” That’s the full forward third of the ship.

“Half of our KPR batteries are down, the KKVs are intact but the bay doors are jammed shut.” So we can’t use our primary weapons, and only have half of our secondaries.

“Folding Space relay is gone.” No comms, typical.

“Our primary thrusters are only operating at four percent,” No thrust is never good, but the thrusters are something that can be easily fixed provided they’re not a total loss.

“And our Folding Space drive is fried.” My mind grinds to a halt, an icy chill running down my spine. No Folding Space. Fixing thrusters is one thing, but Folding Space drives are quite another. It could take months to fix that on our own, provided we still have the tools to do so after all the decompressions.

“How did this happen?” I ask. A simple question really. There’s limping home, then there’s crawling on paws and knees, but we’re doing neither. We’re lying in a puddle of our own blood, waiting for the pain to end.

Takari runs a few commands through his console, then turns to me. “From what I can tell, we clipped a space-time eddy of some kind, a ripple. In a few moments I should know exactly what type of ripple.” He returns his attention to the screen for a moment, waiting for whatever simulation he’s running to end.

A few moments later, the console gives a small tone. Takari’s whole body jerked, his ears springing to attention. What did he see, what did the simulation say? I maneuver myself for a closer look, and immediately wish that I hadn't. Burned into my brain for what I can only assume will be the rest of my life, are the three words displayed in the middle of the screen. Just three words, the only possibility the computer could verify as the cause of our predicament. Folding Space collision.

Folding Space collision, I think. That hasn’t happened in over two hundred years. It’s a ship-killer, one hundred percent mortality rate, until now that is! I feel an odd sensation run through me. Here I thought that things couldn’t possibly have been worse, only to find that we’re some of the luckiest Edonians in the history of spaceflight to have escaped with our lives. 

But what about the other ship? [Other ship?]

That was odd, what was that? I look around for the unknown voice, nothing. Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought. I should check in with Ijuurisus, I’m starting to hallucinate.

[But you’re the hallucination.]

A statement? I’m the hallucination? What the hell is this?

A few moments pass with no response. I steady myself to push off, ready to return to the medical deck.

And then it hit me. The pain, the sorrow, the loss. Flashes of images. Wings, twisted metal, a piece of melted machinery, the silence. Each image is charged with feelings of suffering and silent rage. But most of all I feel the screams. The seemingly endless screams. The loudest, and most desperate screaming I’ve ever heard in my life. It surrounds me, envelops me, crushes me beneath its weight. How could something experience such pain? I've reached my breaking point, I’m almost certain of it. I cannot bear this weight one second more, but in that moment, something happened. A revelation of sorts. This wasn’t aimless madness, no, it was a plea. A plea from what? 

[Me! I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!] Flashes of a twisted metal box, a being floating in a room full of machines, another ship. 

The presence is hysterical now. Elation mixed with despair, desperation underlying it all. Slow down, I can’t breathe! The edges of my vision begin closing in. [Sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!] The presence continues speaking, but I can finally breathe.

During the mental onslaught, I had inadvertently pushed off from where I was braced. I’m reminded of this when I hit the ceiling. A new pain shoots through my head, I groan as my paws cover the spot on my forehead that I just hit again. [Are you ok?] The presence has calmed somewhat, she seems to realize I’m in pain. She? How did I know that? 

How is this even real? This can’t be real! [It is, I swear it is! I just don’t know what to do! I’m trapped and I don’t know what to do!]

“Telluri?” Shit, Andossin’s noticed. I can’t let him know, He’ll think I’m crazy! Hell, I think I’m crazy! [How could you think that?] be quiet for a moment, I can’t think to you and talk to him at the same time. Silence. Good, now to deal with Andossin.

“Telluri, are you ok?” I try to think of a reasonable excuse. Distracted? No, too weak. Tripped? No you moron, no gravity. Misjudged my push? Yes, that’s the best I’m going to get. “Yea, I’m fine. I just pushed off a bit too hard.” 

His ear twitches. Fuck, he’s not buying it.

Andossin unbuckles his restraints and pushes off to me. “Ok Telluri, I think you should get back to Ijuurisus now.” That’s it? I’m saved. He thinks I’m still out of it. He grabs my shoulder, and turns towards the workstations. “Takinilok, you have the deck.” What? Why would he do that? What does it mean, unless? Unless he just wants to get me alone. This isn’t over yet!

Takari nods, then unbuckles himself from his station so he can take Andossin’s place. Meanwhile, Andossin is guiding me to the ladder. I’m scared now, because Andossin knows me better than anyone else alive, and I know there’s no way I can keep this from him.


	3. Voices in Our Heads

Ritarin:  
The Lone Loraldi:  
Chapter 2: Voices in Our Heads.

(POV Chikarin)

I am broken.

And yet, as I touch my mind to this hallucination, something unexpected happens. I expect to reach out and find my mind grasping nothing but emptiness as the illusion is cracked beneath my scrutiny. But I was wrong.

The illusion did not falter, it merely grew stronger! Flashes of memories. Vast amounts of knowledge, most of it passing so quickly that I cannot grasp it before it is gone. Telluri, Edonian, Talden, EAS-KC-34799, strangely deformed beings.

No hallucination is this detailed, this is real! I’m not alone! I push myself out, trying to further connect with the current source of my sanity, desperately trying to strengthen that finely threaded tether. This is reckless, bonding is done in minutes, not seconds, but I don’t care! I cannot stand this silence one moment more!

Something clicks inside my head. I can hear him well now, he is questioning? I’ll give him an answer, the only answer I can think of sending. [Me! I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!] He understands. I’ve broken through! I’ve done it, he can hear me now!

Distress, confusion, dimming senses. What is happening to him? [Slow down, I can’t breathe!] What? I’ve pushed too fast! I’ve flooded him! I need to pull back, I need to pull back now! I attempt to sever the tether, but the most I can do is weaken its flow, I hope it’s enough. [Sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!] His consciousness is regaining strength, I think I’ve done it. 

A spike of pain passes through the link. [Are you ok?] No reply. 

Wait, he’s questioning me again, are his people not telepathic as well? Can he turn away? I can’t have him turn away! [It is, I swear it is! I just don’t know what to do! I’m trapped and I don’t know what to do!] 

A noise through the link, a noise with meaning, the image of a white furred beast. The beast is concerned? Wait, this beast has feelings associated with it, is that what his people look like? A pang of distress from him, followed by thoughts of his own insanity? He thinks he’s insane! [How could you think that?] A heavy push, its meaning clear. He does not wish to speak at this moment, I reluctantly oblige him.

He’s definitely communicating with it now. I sense him attempting something, attempting to mislead? Who would do such a thing? I must be mistaken, but no, there it is again! But why, why is there need for such a selfish act?

More distress. His attempt has failed, I can feel that fact bleed through the link. What will his punishment be, I wonder? I hope for his sake that it’s minimal. [What now?]

(POV Telluri)

I float in silent terror as I’m guided down the ladder. Down and down we go. And there went the medical deck, so much for that hope. [What now?] Well, I have to apologize to him first, and then I need to convince him that I’m not crazy. Yea, if I can do those two things then I’ll be in pretty good shape.

He guides me out of the corridor and into the barracks, then he reaches up and seals the bulkhead. A quick float downwards and he repeats the process with the second bulkhead. We’re now completely alone, both of us. [Don’t you mean the three of us?] Not helping.

I turn my gaze to Andossin. It’s easy to forget he’s almost thirty centimeters taller than me until I see him when he’s really pissed off. Tail twitching, teeth bared, the fiery glint in his eyes. I tense my abdomen, this is gonna hurt. [Why?]

“Ooof.” 

A balled up paw strikes my gut. Yea, I probably deserved that. “The only reason I didn’t aim for your head, is because you’ve hit it enough times yourself today.” I could court martial him if we get back, but I won’t. I wouldn’t do that to my only brother.

“What would our mother think of you now, I wonder?” He starts, “The shame she would feel.” “Akta…” “Quiet! I’m not done yet!” I shrink down even further. My ears are pinned to the back of my skull, and if I could still move my tail I’m sure it would be tucked firmly between my legs. “You know I hate it when you lie to me, you know I do.” He’s calming down a bit now, less fury, more disappointment. “I love you brother, I really do, but sometimes you make it very difficult for me to trust you.” Almost my turn. “You should know that you can trust me with anything, anything!” But I couldn’t say it out in the open! “Even if you had to pull me aside to say it.” And there goes that escape route.

His breathing has leveled out, the tension in his shoulders is gone, his hackles have lowered. My turn now. “Aktari, I don’t particularly enjoy lying to you either. But this time I swear I had a good reason!” Another ear twitch, not good enough. “Hell, I don’t even know if I believe what’s happening to me right now.” [You have not lost your mind.] You shut up. 

He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, he’s coming around, just a little bit more. “And I wasn’t going to keep this from you forever, just until I could figure out if I was still sane or not.” Slight flinch, got him. [you read him well, do you see his thoughts too?] No, but I don’t need to. I’ve known him my whole life, this isn’t the first time we’ve done this.

His gaze seems to pierce into my soul, nose flaring every so often, trying to catch a scent. He’s studying me. Why is he studying me? He's not mad anymore, he believes me. He’s concerned. In my explanation I called into question my own sanity, real smooth.

“Teletiri, what troubles you?” Where to start, we almost die, we’re stranded in the void, and my head feels like it’s going to explode. But that’s not what he’s looking for, that’s not the real answer.

“The voice that’s stuck in my head.” His jaw slacks a bit, he wasn’t expecting that. [I’m not a voice, I’m a Loraldi!] Save it, now is not the time. 

“Voices?” Andossin is confused as hell, I don’t blame him. Well, time to clarify. “Voice, singular. A Voice, in my head, listening to everything I think, and flooding my thoughts with pleas for help.”

He gives me a once over. He wants to believe I’m lying, but he can’t find any evidence to support it, he believes me. He believes me, and for the first time in my life, he’s speechless. I don’t know what to do now, this has never happened before. Should I keep going? Has he heard enough? Is this good, or bad?

A pause. Has it been minutes, or hours? I don’t think either of us can tell.

“What does this voice say?” I should’ve expected that.

“It’s like I said before, She’s asking for help.” He perks up. “And before you ask, I don’t know how I know it’s a she. I just know.” He freezes, caught that one just in time.

“Do you think it’s real?” Do I? A sense of desperation from the other side, she’s scared. Considering the evidence for the moment, it’s not as far fetched as I initially thought. 

We patrol the outer edges of explored space, to guard against unknown entities. [What!] A sense of rage bleeds through the link. A precautionary measure, I assure you, we have very strict orders: return fire only! The hostility fades, slowly fading into a rather intense annoyance.

In addition to the patrol, we have the most damning piece of evidence thus far, and Andossin hasn’t heard it yet. Something that hasn’t happened in over two hundred years. “Folding Space collision.” 

“What?” He’s going limp now, probably feeling the same chill that I felt when I read the words. I press on. “Takari’s simulation results. Folding Space collision. We hit someone, and I think I’m hearing the only one that’s left.” Now why did I add that last bit? How did I even know?

Andossin shivers for a moment, he seems even more shaken up about this than I am. [Because he does not share the burden like we do.] What does that even mean? [Later.]

“So what now?” He says, still a bit shaken. If we weren’t in microgravity right now I think we’d both be sprawled across the deck. I ponder the question carefully.

[Please don’t leave me!] Flashes of a crumpled metal box, a prison, a nightmare, a tomb. The loneliness, the crippling silence, it’s palpable, it’s suffocating. “Teletiri?” I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath.

“She’s scared, and alone. I keep seeing it, feeling it, living it. It’s horrible, it’s a nightmare!” I can’t take it anymore, I’m at my wits end! I can feel my sanity slowly slipping away from me!

Andossin nuzzles against my neck, nestling the side of his muzzle deeper and deeper into my fur with each pass. A calming gesture, a holdover from our more primitive days when instincts, not intellect, ruled our minds. 

It worked wonderfully, the tension leaves me, my mind stills, and my heart is at ease. So long as I focus on that one simple gesture, I am loved, I am content. [I’ve never felt this before, what is this feeling?] I ignore her, she’s caused me enough stress for now.

“So what do we do, Teletiri? How do we fix this?” He’s nearly in tears now, he feels my pain, he carries the load, lifts it away from my shoulders. He buys me the time to think.

Impact velocities, drift, Folding Space wakes. The shuttle. The KKV bays are jammed, but the shuttle bay might be fine. We could fly over in that and get her ourselves!

But the crew would need to know, we would need to give a reason. We can’t justify using the shuttle for no reason at all. In these circumstances, every resource we have available is critical to us, especially time. [I have tools! I have tools and I can use them! I can help you!] That’s it! Salvage! If we find the wreckage I can justify a salvage operation, from there it’s just a simple matter of finding where she’s trapped.

“I need to get to the CIC. I know what I need to do.”

Andossin releases me, and floats back to look me in my eyes. “What did you have in mind?” 

“Salvage operations.” I turn and push off to the upper bulkhead, the sound of a faint huff of amusement beneath me. 

Opening the bulkhead, I push myself through the corridor, drifting up towards the CIC. The sound of booted paws hitting metal from below confirming that Andossin is in tow.

As I drift past the medical deck, I see Ijuurisus give me an odd look, as though she’s confused about something. Did she hear any of it? We were pretty loud. The bulkhead was closed, and those things are thick. We were a couple of decks away, how could she have heard?

No. If she heard any of that, she’d have dragged me into the med deck and strapped me to a table until I gave her answers. Then what was she thinking about? 

“Weren’t you in the CIC, Talden?” That’s it, I was coming from the direction opposite to the one she saw me going earlier.

Before I can respond, I drift past the deck. I hear sounds of understanding escape her a short time later as Andossin passes the deck. She knows that we argue, but she also knows that we would never argue in front of the crew. We must project a stable sense of leadership for the others to follow, public arguments would undermine that.

Almost to the CIC now. Time to see if my plan will work.


	4. Interrogation

Ritarin:  
The Lone Loraldi:  
Chapter 3: Interrogation.

(POV Chikarin)

Their argument has just finished. Telluri, as I now know one of his names to be, has formed some kind of plan to help me. I should be ecstatic, but I’m only confused. Even with the aid of the bond I cannot discern the meaning of the feelings associated with the word brother, or explain the sensation Telluri experienced as the other rubbed against his neck. It is foreign to me, and that is unsettling. I hope I’m making the right choice by asking for his help. Maybe I should ask him to clarify, all he seems to be doing right now is waiting, though he did seem rather annoyed by my presence in his argument. I thought it was supposed to be a joyous thing to share in the thoughts of others, but I’m quickly learning this is not the case with him. 

A gentle tug from the other side, he wants to talk? Just when I think I have him solved, a new surprise comes up. I reinforce the tether between us, allowing me to hear his thoughts. [I can feel you pacing in the back of my head, what did you want?] He felt that? I barely did anything, I just wanted to ask a question. Did I actually place pressure behind that thought? For the first time in my life I consider the possibility of restraining my own thoughts to protect someone else, someone who had no means of defense against them.

[Apologies, I didn't mean to impose, it just sort of happened.] Annoyance on his end. [Is there any way you can cut down on that a little? It’s very distracting.]

I take a deep breath, and focus myself. I know I won’t like what I'm going to do next, but if it makes him more comfortable. [Wait. Why did it happen?] of all the possible questions, that’s the one he asks? [Why would that matter to you? You are not a Loraldi.] 

[I’m not a Loraldi, but you’re not an Edori either. I feel like all the answers to your questions are just magically plucked from my head, and every time I try doing the same to you I get nothing in return. I. Want. Answers.] His agitation is palpable, I should tread carefully. [If I lose focus, thoughts and ideas can slip out. They could be heard as a voice, or felt like you described.]

Confusion. [So the more you focus, the less you interact with others?] I need to clear this up, but I don’t know how. I’ll just start from the beginning then. [Not exactly. Loraldi are naturally telepathic, it’s the first voice we learn to use. For all my life, I have been linked to the minds of others, just as they were linked to mine. It’s hard to turn off, very disturbing as well.]

[If your abilities are so powerful, then why am I the only one you speak to, why not Andossin or one of the others as well?] I do know the answer to that. [Your mind is the only one I could hear. It was very faint at first. I was certain my mind was toying with me, inventing presences to replace the ones that I lost.] Should I keep going? [And as for power. My abilities are rather limited, just well refined.]

Shock, more confusion mixed with anger. [Limited! Whatever you did to me earlier felt like it damn near killed me!] This is bad, I need to fix this! [You would not have died, though I’m sorry all the same. In my desperation I threw myself at the only source of stability I could find, which happened to be you.] 

A revelation, he’s calming now. [Like a drowning man pulling someone down with him. You didn’t think, you just acted, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. That explains why, but not how.] A crude analogy, but accurate. I don’t know the strength of his kind’s drive for self preservation, but I’m assuming it’s strong given his response. Either way, I have another question to answer.

[I can sense thoughts and feelings, and, to a lesser extent, perceive things through the senses of another. I can also send my own thoughts and feelings in a similar manner. That is the extent of my abilities, nothing more. We can speak through our minds because language has no meaning between them, we do not think in words, but ideas.]

[So all of the pain that I felt, was yours?] I cringe, I did not mean him harm.

[Yes, we Loraldi share our emotions with all, so that we may lighten the burden that any one individual would bear. The pain of hundreds eased by the happiness of thousands.]

[Emotions are more than just a burden, they’re part of who we are. Wouldn’t shoving your outbursts to someone else prevent you from learning to live with, and control, your emotions in the first place?] I’ve never considered this before, it’s a reasonable theory. If I ever get home I’ll need to share it, maybe we are too dependent upon one another.

[You said you were Loraldi, is that your name?] A reasonable assumption, but incorrect.

[It is the name of my kind.] Understanding, but followed by a burning curiosity. What could he want to know now, what more could he ask from this? Surely not what I think?

[What is your name?] My name? He’s asking for my name? Nobody ever asks for my name, they are a deeply personal thing, one of the only things we can truly call our own.

[It is all that we have, it is not given lightly.] Disappointment, sadness, regret. He is genuinely disturbed by my answer. Do his people value their names, or do they hold little meaning at all? [This is distressing to you, why? Do your names hold no value?]

[Quite the opposite, they are what sets us apart from others, they are of great importance to us.] His reply is forceful, this is important, I need to understand.

[Yet my refusal to share it troubles you, why?]

[Giving your name displays a measure of trust in the recipient, it helps build trust. It is not given freely, but to be denied a name is to be denied the trust associated with giving it.] It’s about trust?

[You feel I do not trust you? Then I shall give you my name.] I need him to trust me.

[No, giving it under duress is even worse.] He heavily stresses the last word, he’s serious.

[I am not under duress, I merely misunderstood the significance of the act.] I can’t believe I’m about to do this, giving the one part of me that is truly my own, but I am in his world now.

[I might not be a Loraldi, but I can feel the discomfort this brings you. You don’t need to do this, not for me. I will not leave you to die out there, not for the lack of a name.] There is conviction in his statement, his mind resolute. I need not surrender myself.

[I shall give you my name,] he says, [in the hopes that someday, I might be worthy of receiving yours.]

[That is not necessary, I already know that you are called Telluri.]

[Nevertheless, I shall give it. My name is Telluri Taniri.] I was wrong. So many emotions associated with those words. The droning apathy for the first; and that same, indescribable feeling from earlier paired with the last.

I can feel the gravity of what he just did, and what it meant to him. I am honored he would do such a thing for me. Perhaps his people do hold names in the same light that a Loraldi does, they merely have a different manner of showing it. [Such emotion behind these words.]

A gentle warmth permeates me, and I relish every moment of it. This feeling is new, unknown, but very pleasant. It lingers a few moments more, before slowly fading away. I already find myself missing it. It reminds me of something else, a question I’ve had since his argument with Andossin. I should ask now.

[Telluri, what is the meaning of brother? I did not understand earlier.] Confusion, [I thought you said that language has no meaning between minds, how can you not understand?]

[Language has no meaning because we think in concepts, and this concept is foreign to me. Please, help me understand. Help me understand what you felt. I want to know, I need to know! I’ve never felt something like that before in my life.] And I want to feel it again. 

[Andossin and I are related, we both share the same parents, or at least, his parents took me in when I was still a kit. I’ve known him my whole life, he means a great deal to me.] It is much more than that, I can feel it.

[Care? This is unlike any care I have experienced before, I care for the well being of my people, but not like this.] I start.

[The ice is thinning here…] What does that even mean?

[What could move you to such extremes!] Too much, I’m becoming accusatory, cut back a bit.

[How could you not understand? I love him, we share the bond of a pack! I would die for him, and he would do the same for me! The memory of pack Taniri lives on our shoulders, my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, all gone! Andossin is all I have left!] Too late! He’s hysterical now, thrown into a rage fueled rant while he drowns in his own sorrows. Why did I press him, what had I to gain from this? 

[Are your people so engrossed in your unity that you forget to feel at all? ANSWER ME!] Too much! He’s moving too fast, I can’t keep up! Is this what I did to him before? 

[No? Nothing? Nothing at all? What gives you the right to lord yourself over me?] I can’t breathe, I’m crumbling beneath his assault! I have to get out, I need to get out!

There’s only one way out. I slam the link shut, and weep into the now deafening silence.


End file.
